


A Dream For North

by Lunarium



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Capital Park, Female Friendship, Friendship, Gap Filler, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24927262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: The WR400 android shares eerie resemblance to herself: exact same face, same body, same hair pulled back in a low ponytail, yet her eyes shines with none of the weariness North carries.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9
Collections: Turing Fest 2020





	A Dream For North

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kameiko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kameiko/gifts).



The WR400 android shares eerie resemblance to herself: exact same face, same body, same hair pulled back in a low ponytail, yet her eyes shines with none of the weariness North carries. She stands stock-still on the dais, positioned up with a line of other androids on the stage. Just merchandise on display. Behind her the words “your dream partner” burned white-hot iron through North, filling her with an all-consuming rage and grief. The sorrow doesn’t make itself known when Markus checks up on her, but it builds, a crescendo of fury boiling with each android awakening. 

As androids awaken and take their first steps of freedom, she moves through the crowd to relocate the WR400. Finding her, they stand across from one another, both wearing similar expressions, though the stranger carries a more naïve and curious light. 

Duplicate models were not unheard of back in Jericho, but androids had multiple means of changing their appearances for sake of individuality. Still, this was the first time North had seen another WR400 since her escape from the Eden’s Club. She couldn’t imagine she was the first nor the last of that line to escape. At least this one was saved from the horrors she and the others had experienced. 

“I’m North,” North says but doesn’t ask for the other android’s name. She wouldn’t have been registered with one. A name will be among the first thing a freed android does for themself; she had seen it with the androids Markus had freed at the CyberLife warehouse. 

She stands by the WR400 as Markus delivers his speech. Of all the androids, she seems the most docile, voicing her alliance with Markus in a soft voice very much unlike North’s. 

Built to be docile. Built to be used. Built to obey with no mechanism of saying no. Painful shards of memories cut through North’s mind, and the rising rage teems over. Her eyes scan the vicinity, absorbing every inch of the park the humans built with iron on the backs of low-paid human workers and androids. She can almost hear the alarm warning of her system overheating, but she ignores it in favor of the desire to destroy every inch of the park.

That is, until a hand presses over her shoulder. She squeezes her eyes shut before addressing Markus. 

“They’re doing what you do, Markus…lead, and they’ll follow.” 

He chooses to send out a peaceful message to the humans. 

A shake of the head. Of course. But the others follow, feverish, enthusiastic, their first moments of freedom declaring and demanding rights from the people who had made them and set them up on display for weeks, months. 

Seeing no point in doing differently, North tags the windows and benches and statues, and hacks street signs. The WR400 follows her like a shadow on her tippy toes, bouncing around from window to window, casting tags with bright-eyed wonder. 

“Dream,” the WR400 sighs contently next to North. “I want to be called Dream.” 

North studies what the android had just tagged— _We have a dream_ —before glancing at her; the glow of the words reflects in her eyes. 

“Dream,” she says again. “That word was behind me back in the store. What does it mean?” 

North shivers. How to explain the difference between ‘dream partner’ and ‘we have a dream’? 

“It’s a desire,” North begins. “A wish. It’s something you can envision when you close your eyes, and it’s strong. You strive for a dream.” 

“Like what we’re doing now?” Dream asks, breathless. 

“Yes,” North says with a nod. 

“Then what did it mean back at the store?” Dream asks. “I was being sold as someone’s ‘dream partner’?” 

North freezes with her hand pressed against a sign, halfway towards hacking its symbol. Images flash through her memory and she whips her hand away lest any images ends up broadcast for all the world to see, for Dream to see. 

Pain clenches in her chest. She didn’t think it was possible for her body to mimic heartache, but there was no denying what her Thirium pump was doing in that moment. Perhaps WR400 androids were denied to be more emotionally attuned to their partners. She hated it. 

“A partner is…someone you are with,” North explains, “so I guess your dream partner is…someone you wish to be with.”

“Am I your dream partner?” Dream asks suddenly, catching North off guard. Smiling from ear to ear, she turns from the statue she was studying to meet North’s gaze. “You haven’t left my side the moment you saw me. We could be twins!” 

Like sisters. North the elder, the roughened one, guiding the other through the trenches and darkness and out into freedom, to a better and happier world. 

Wasn’t that exactly what North wanted? Her dream? 

A partner need not be a lover, but a friend, family, companion…

Smiling back, North gives Dream a nod.


End file.
